I was chatting with Melissa this weekend and made an off-hand comment that I was a bit disappointed that a product I was considering buying at some point was was actually made overseas by a foreign company and imported/re-branded as an American product. Melissa, probably annoyed at me bothering her while she is suffering from the flu, asked me if I would decide what product to buy simply on country of origin. This led to a discussion of what constitutes an ‘American’ product and how to weigh country of origin vs. other factors in making a purchase decision.
I am patriotic, and all-else-being-equal I prefer to support my own country’s economy and people by buying American. Having said that, I am a big proponent of unfettered free trade between nations and won’t hesitate to buy a foreign product if it is a better product for a fair price. I am also cognizant of the fact that the lines have become very blurry about what constitutes ‘American’ any more. Apple Computer is based in California, but is a MacBook Pro manufactured in Shanghai, China really ‘American’? Chrysler is based in Michigan, but is an automobile assembled in Mexico ‘American’? How about Japan-based Honda making a car in Ohio out of, primarily, American-sourced parts? Is that an American car?
This madness occurs in almost every industry these days. Walther, a German firearms company, licenses many of their designs to Massachusetts-based Smith & Wesson. Smith & Wesson provides many of the parts and performs assembly of these weapons independently of Walther, but sells them in the U.S. market branded as Walthers. On the other hand, Springfield Armory of Illinois imports pistols designed and manufactured by HS Produkt in Croatia, slaps their own logo on them, and calls them the Springfield Armory XD line. In some respects, the foreign-branded Walthers are more ‘American’ than the U.S.-branded XDs.
